1. What actions can Jane take immediately to help the Mountainview situation?

Overview of MOUNTAINVIEW Mountainview Automotive is a manufacturer of electronic components headquartered in Japan, with sales of approximately $300M, with 50% of production in Japan and 50% in the US. It is one of the largest suppliers of switch module to the auto industry. It has its headquarters in Japan and its annual revenue exceeds $4 billion. Mountainview is the six times proud recipient of GMs supplier of the year award. It has manufacturing plants in Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Europe, and produces a variety of products for the automotive and computer industries. In automotive, they build components for ignition switches, power windows, power mirrors, volume controls, and airbag harnesses in steering wheels. The latter product has a standard design that goes into virtually every automobile, but has undergone significant design changes. With the introduction of steering wheel volume controls and cruise control, the number of switches in this product has gone from 2 to 18. Mountainview produces products in all three types of GM demand streams: first tier, directed, and order specific. Mountainview is very well- positioned to grow with GM. It currently produces products for Isuzu, Subaru, Saab, Daewoo, and many other companies. Although GM is its largest customer in the US, it also produces products for every automotive company in the US with the exception of Mercedez Benz and Mitsubishi. It has won a GM QSP Award for the past six years in a row. Jane Sandeep, Sue and Rob visited the Mountainview facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The facility is a tier 3 supplier to General Motors DHAM- Hamtramck plant in Michigan. It supplies switch assembly for sun roof to Moran Plastics, who is a tier 2 supplier. Moran supplies the switch along with a plastic molded part to the tier 1 supplier Lear Corporation. This plastic part is one of the components that go in the making of the Headliner assembly of the H cars (Le Sabre).

MOUNTAINVIEW Perspective Improvement Opportunities In response to Janes presentation, Michael Mitchell, the General Manager, made a number of key points that described some of the current supply chain issues that need to be resolved with GM. Mountainview has increased its business with GM from $50M in 1996, to $90M in 2000, and is projected to reach $140 M by 2006. Of this amount in 2005, close to $60M will be a directed source, which is a significant increase in the proportion of models. Directed source means that Mountainview will be supplying a first tier supplier (such as an interior module assembler), who will insert the components, ship them to GM, and pay Mountainview directly. The first tier is required to use Mountainview, hence a directed source. Mountainview has no desire to build panels and assemblies, but wishes to stay in components. They will consider producing subsystems, however.